Nikola Jokic erupts to lead Nuggets past Mavericks in Denver’s in-season tournament opener

DENVER — While their court cosplayed in Golden State colors, the Denver Nuggets showed up to the in-season tournament shooting like a Steph Curry Warriors team.

Denver made its first five 3-point attempts and shot 12-for-24 through three quarters to dispatch the formerly undefeated Mavericks 125-114 on Friday night, in the group stage opener of the NBA’s inaugural full-league tournament.

Nikola Jokic scored 33 points on 14-of-16 shooting and crossed 4,000 career assists, though he finished one assist shy of passing Jason Kidd and LeBron James on the all-time list. In the last 50 games he has played at Ball Arena, the Nuggets are 45-5 with an average point differential of plus-10.2.

The Mavericks (4-1) are one of the five lucky teams to escape Denver with a win during that stretch, and their scorching start to this season — especially beyond the arc, where they were shooting 41% before Friday night’s game — had them looking like a worthy candidate to repeat as spoilers at altitude. Especially with Luka Doncic averaging close to a 30-point triple-double and with Kyrie Irving back in the lineup after missing the last two games.

But Michael Porter Jr. registered 24 points and nine rebounds and guarded Doncic honorably, even as Dallas hunted him in isolation offense for the All-NBA point guard. Doncic finished with 34 hard-earned points on 24 shots. Porter walled up and avoided getting blown by several times. Irving added 22 for the Mavericks.

The Nuggets (5-1), needing to bounce back for the first time this season after struggling to generate offense Wednesday in Minnesota, dominated in the paint and scored 20 second-chance points, including a Porter put-back with 3:04 left to reclaim a 10-point lead. They survived on the back of an outstanding first quarter in which they looked shaky for all of 60 seconds.

Denver turned the ball over on its first two possessions and gave up transition buckets. Then all was well. The first quarter ended with Denver shooting 14-for-20 from the field and 6-for-7 from 3-point range to lead 40-24. All nine rotation players scored in the quarter; none were in double figures.

The second was shakier offensively, but Michael Malone’s second unit continued to provide promising flashes. Zeke Nnaji’s presence continued to be a quiet but effective one — Denver ran a pick-and-roll with him and Murray on the first possession of the quarter, which Nnaji turned into a basket and a foul. He gathered four rebounds in 11 minutes. By the time Jokic drained a buzzer-beater three and screamed at the blue-and-yellow court, the Nuggets had accomplished a feat they pulled off 14 times in 2022-23: score 70 points in a first half.

The trend that seems destined to persist throughout this year is the portion of games — home games especially — when it feels like opponents are closer than they actually are. During the second stint of non-Jokic minutes Friday, a lead as large as 20 slipped to single digits with 10:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, prompting a Malone timeout. But two minutes later, Jokic checked back in, and the score never got closer than three possessions.

The Nuggets host the Chicago Bulls on Saturday (7 p.m.) to complete their second back-to-back of the season. Their next in-season tournament game is Nov. 14 against the Clippers in Denver.

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